But the Attorney General’s Office is now investigating complaints the newspaper may have broken the Contempt of Court Act by running the article ahead of next month’s new inquests into the tragedy.

The Reading Chronicle’s article on Thursday, titled ‘The Other Face of Football’, read: “Football hooliganism may be thought of as a relic from a previous age when gangs of denim-clad skinheads held the game to ransom and names like Hillsborough and Heysel were symbols of its ills.”

Berkshire Media Group issued an apology on the weekly newspaper’s website yesterday.

The offensive Reading Chronicle front page

A statement from Keith McIntyre, the publisher’s managing director, said: “Berkshire Media Group wish to apologise unreservedly for appearing to link football hooliganism with the Hillsborough tragedy on our front page of this week’s issue.

“It was never our intention to do so and we fully accept that hooliganism played no part in the tragic events of 15th April 1989.”

The Lord Justice Taylor Report in 1991 and the Hillsborough Independent Panel Report of 2012 both concluded hooliganism did not play any part in tragedy, which led to the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans.

Ahead of the new inquests the Attorney General Dominic Grieve and the coroner Lord Justice Goldring both warned of the risk of publishing material, including online, which could “create a substantial risk that the course of justice in the inquests may be seriously impeded or prejudiced, particularly as this inquest involves a jury”.

Margaret Aspinall, chairman of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, whose son James, 18, died in the disaster, described the front page as an "absolute disgrace", but refrained from making "stronger comment" because she said she didn't want to prejudice the inquests.

Sheila Coleman, from the Hillsborough Justice Campaign (HJC), called for action to be taken against the Reading Chronicle.

Ms Coleman said: "At a time when we are effectively being gagged from commenting on issues around Hillsborough and we're closely following the coroner's rules, it is appalling that an irresponsible press can choose to repeat the lies of Hillsborough that were put to bed a long time ago.

"We are being told we can't comment and we have a newspaper, no matter how obscure, linking Hillsborough with hooliganism."

The HJC would hope the coroner would seize upon this as flouting the coroner's ruling and that appropriate action is taken."

A spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office said: “A number of people have made us aware of this material. We will be responding to them soon.”

The story appeared to have been removed from the Reading Chronicle’s website yesterday, save for a cropped image of the front page, next to the apology.

Survivors helping the injured at Hillsborough

Reading FC have suspended their relationship with the Reading Chronicle over the story.

Thousands of furious football fans, including Liverpool FC and Reading FC supporters, took to Twitter to criticise the newspaper over the article, which was accompanied with a staged picture of a Reading FC fan brandishing a piece of wood.